Community Forests in England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
England's twelve community forests are afforestation based regeneration projects which were established in the early 1990s. Each of them is a partnership between the Forestry Commission and the Countryside Agency, which are agencies of the British government, and the relevant local councils.
Most of the designated areas are close to large cities and contain large amounts of brownfield, underused and derelict land. When the forests were created the average forest cover in the designated areas was 6.9%, and the target is to increase this to 30% over about 30 years. As most of the land is in private ownership the schemes rely mainly on providing landowners with incentives to plant trees. However the forests contain areas of publicly accessible open land, and increasing public access is one of the objectives.
The table below lists the twelve forests. As some of them straddle county boundaries they are more conveniently listed by region and town or city.
| Forest | Region | Close to | Square miles | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest of Avon | South West | Bristol | 221 | [1] |
| Great North Forest | North East | Newcastle | 96 | [2] |
| Great Western Forest | South West | Swindon | tbc | [3] |
| Greenwood Forest | East Midlands | Nottingham | 161 | [4] |
| Forest of Marston Vale | East of England | Bedford | 61 | [5] |
| Forest of Mercia | West Midlands | Birmingham | 92 | [6] |
| Mersey Forest | North West | Liverpool | 420 | [7] |
| Red Rose Forest | North West | Manchester | 292 | [8] |
| South Yorkshire Forest | Yorkshire and the Humber | Sheffield | 200 | [9] |
| Tees Forest | North East | Middlesbrough | tbc | [10] |
| Thames Chase | London and East of England | London | 40 | [11] |
| Watling Chase | East of England | London | 72 | [12] |
